The invention discloses an application and a preparation method of a powdered styrene-butadiene rubber friction material. The preparation method comprises the following steps: sequentially adding water and styrene-butadiene latex into a polymerization kettle, stirring, heating, adding an oxidizing agent, carrying out a cross-linking reaction to obtain surface cross-linked styrene-butadiene latex, dispersing kaolin into ammonia water, adding a surface modifier, heating in a water bath in the stirring process, and carrying out heat preservation to obtain the powdered styrene-butadiene rubber friction material. The preparation method comprises the following steps: adding cross-linked styrene-butadiene latex into a stirred product, premixing in a high-speed stirrer, uniformly mixing, adding a coating agent to form a pulverization system, stirring in a common stirrer at a constant temperature, adding a flocculating agent, and strongly stirring in the high-speed stirrer, so that the pulverization system is subjected to pulverization, coagulation and co-precipitation. According to the application and the preparation method of the powdered styrene-butadiene rubber friction material, the powdered rubber is ideally dispersed in the friction material, the phenomenon of partial damage is not easy to occur when the friction material bears high-speed friction, the powdered rubber is easy to pulverize, the powder forming rate is high, the mechanical property is better, the long-time deformation is obviously reduced, and the tensile strength is also improved.